SU grad ready to take on New York City

WINCHESTER – A soon-to-be Shenandoah University graduate will join more than 1,000 other students as they begin the next chapter of their lives after graduation.

Taylor Bloom, 22, an undergraduate and acting major from Middletown, will be among those receiving degrees during commencement ceremonies on Saturday at the college.

He said he has always been drawn to acting, having started at the age of 11 at the Winchester Little Theatre and continuing through to his senior year of high school. He said he couldn’t imagine doing anything else with his life.

Bloom attended Shenandoah University because of the Shenandoah Conservatory’s acting program, which uses the Meisner technique.

That training program is a two-year commitment that allows students to develop into a character and work their way through a script before hitting the stage and figuring out how to make the circumstances of the script into something they can be personally involved with.

“The important thing that I’ve learned about working as a theater artist from being in this program is that it’s a really valuable thing if you can create your own work,” he said. “If you can make yourself a valuable member of the theater community you can feed your own artistic hunger while also making yourself valuable to other theater creators around you.”

He has also participated in Playwrights and has been a member of the Shakespeare group since his junior year.

“The thing that kept me here was the community of people that you work with,” he added. “It’s very much a family environment and everyone is encouraging and challenging and you’re all trying to make it through together.”

He added that this Shenandoah University family will be what he will miss the most after graduation.

For anyone considering attending the university, he said to make sure they “take responsibility for yourself and know your limits and don’t make excuses and work as hard as you can and then be satisfied with that work and don’t push yourself beyond your ability.”

“This program is what you make of it,” he added.

After graduating, he will be moving to New York City to pursue his acting career, whether it be in the theater or on screen, he said.

He noted that he is excited to be moving to the city because it’s really “alive,” but added that it’s not going to be an easy place to live. He said he hopes he will be able to succeed, adding that navigating the concrete jungle may be hard after growing up along the Blue Ridge Mountains, but he is excited about the change.

Shenandoah University will hold its 2017 commencement at 10 a.m. Saturday on the intramural field behind Brandt Student Center.

The ceremony will celebrate the university’s 210 August 2016 graduates, 287 December 2016 graduates and 831 May 2017 candidates for degrees. This year marks a record number of applications received for May graduation.